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Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) ............................//Washington Street no. 37 Manhattan (from series, Changing New York)//
George Washington, ca. 1779–81...............................1936
Gift of Collis P. Huntington, 1897 (97.33)......................Berenice Abbott
The Metropolitan Museum of Art..................................Smithsonian American Art Museum
.................................................................................1975.83.13

Ragged Dick
"'This coat once belonged to General Washington,' said Dick, comically. 'He wore it all through the revolution, and it got torn some, 'cause he fit so hard. When he died he told his widder to give it to some smart young feller that hadn't got none of his own; so she gave it to me. But if you'd like it, sir, to remember General Washington by, I'll let you have it reasonable.'
'Thank you, but i wouldn't want to deprive you of it. And did your pants come from General Washington too?'
'No they was a gift from Lewis Napoleon. Lewis had outgrown 'em and sent 'em to me, -he's bigger then me, and that's why they don't fit.'" (Alger Jr., pp. 5-6)

"'I went into the match business,' said Dick; 'but it was small sales and small profits. Most of the people I called on had just laid in a stock, and didn't want to buy. So one cold night, when I hadn't money enough to pay for lodgin', i burned the last of my matches to keep me from freezin'. But it cost too much to get warm that way, and I couldn't keep it up.'"
(Alger Jr., p. 52)

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